In the first episode, I laid out my plans to build a Mechanical Monsters pet battle team. These are my impressions of the team after playing it for two weeks as I leveled the pets all the way to 25 and beyond.

Eric Hawkinson has been trying the team himself and has had the most luck with an aquatic pet pairing, one of the Crocolisks from the Shattrath fishing quest. He was really impressed by the Clockwork Gnome‘s ability to take care of itself, but was frustrated by how easily the Yeti died.

Changes I made to the lineup:

and Clockwork Gnome with the Magical Crawdad. His Surge ability is great for harassing Elemental pets and trying to scare them into the dugout. His mega-heal Wish ability is perfect for helping keep the two important cogs in this locomotive of pain on the frontlines, especially that injury-prone Yeti who’s lacking the Repair

When it works:

Landing a SuperchargedCall Lightning on a Beast pet for an instant-kill on turn 2 with the Mechanical Yeti is incredible. Half the time, my opponent resigns immediately when it happens and I get a massive heap of XP.

When the enemy team has low DPS, my Clockwork Gnome can cycle through Repairs while the turrets

kill anyone that steps up to the plate. It’s exactly the sort of slow-yet-inevitable defeat that my Rogue-loving heart enjoys torturing opponents with.

And even when situations aren’t ideal, the combo of the Yeti and Gnome is reliable and the Magical Crawdad‘s Wish heal is amazing at keeping them both in the game. That heal has saved my bacon so many times that I’m absolutely convinced that the Magical Crawdad is one of the best thirds wheels for this team. It single-handedly gives this team the ability to sustain damage.

Problems I encountered:

This team has a great plan, the problem is that it’s too dependent on the enemy lineup.

1 Elemental pet

2 pets of any type with Elemental attacks

1 DPS pet with a damage reduction shield

2 AoE abilities

3 DoT abilities

1 Lil Ragnaros or Harbinger of Flame

If the enemy team has any of those, you’re going to have a tough fight. Elemental pets are every bit as obnoxious as I thought they’d be (and even moreso because I forgot that their passive lets them ignore weather effects, the backbone to this team’s strategy). And the problem cases listed above are so extremely common that I feel like I’m facing counters in 50% of the games I play. For sub-25, the Yeti is so flimsy that he rarely survives longer than 3 rounds in the ring, making it difficult to level him up via PvP.

I also didn’t fully realize just how big of a disadvantage Mechanical pets are at in PvP. Mechanical is the only type (Critter, Humanoid, Aquatic, etc.) that has a complete hard counter: Elementals are resistant to Mechanical attacks and deal additional damage to Mechanical pets. Every other type of pet has separate groups for their attack and defense weakness, making them more difficult to fully counter.

If Mechanicals were countered by a rare group like Magic it might not be so bad, but Elementals and Elemental attacks are everywhere so it’s actually a big problem.

But the even bigger problem for this team is that it’s remarkably easy for Lightning Storm to benefit your opponent just as much as it benefits you if they have the right abilities on their team. And when our biggest trick isn’t a big help, this team felt pretty lackluster.

See it in action

Final record

28 wins, 35 losses (44% win record)

Do I still use the team?

NO. It’s a feast or famine team that’s very fun when it works out, but makes you feel entirely helpless when it doesn’t. There are a lot of speed bumps on the road to 25 for the Mechanical Monsters, and once you get there, your success is heavily dependent on the luck of the draw to see what types of pets your opponents brought—and the odds aren’t really in your favor. The Mechanical Monsters are best saved for PvE, where you know what enemy types you’ll be facing ahead of time.